The Serbs demonstrated in front of the town hall of the town of Zvecan to demand the resignation of the new mayor of the municipality, belonging to the Albanian majority.
More than 50 people suffered minor injuries this Monday in a Serb protest in northern Kosovo, dispersed with tear gas and smoke grenades by forces of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) KFOR mission.
The Serbs, a minority in Kosovo but the majority group in the north of the country, demonstrated in front of the town hall of the town of Zvecan to demand the resignation of the new president of the municipality, belonging to the Albanian majority.
According to the digital portal Kossev, the KFOR (Kosovo-Force) intervened when the crowd refused, despite the appeal of its political leaders, to allow the passage of two Kosovar special police vehicles that had been blocked among the protesters since morning. .
Protesters demanded the withdrawal of all special police officers Those who were in the City Hall building and some media reported shots.
More than 50 people were treated in a hospital for problems caused by tear gas poisoning and bruises, three of whom were hospitalized, and one person was shot and is seriously injured, with life in danger, said the director of the Clinical Center from Mitrovica. , Zlatan Elek, quoted by the television channel N1.
Hundreds of Serbs demonstrated this Monday in three municipalities in northern Kosovo to demand the withdrawal of the respective chambers of the new presidents elected last April, in elections boycotted by the Serb community, the majority in these municipalities.
Soldiers from the KFOR mission, in charge of ensuring security in Kosovo, intervened between units of the Kosovar special police, stationed in front of the municipal building, and the demonstrators, and at least 25 also suffered injuries: some were hit by cocktails molotov, others suffered fractures.
Eleven of them are Italian, and three are in serious condition, although their lives are not in danger. a situation that provoked a condemning reaction from the Italian Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni.
The Atlantic Alliance has also condemned the events on Monday in northern Kosovo, calling them “unacceptable”.
“NATO strongly condemns the unprovoked attacks on KFOR troops in northern Kosovo, which resulted in several injuries. Such attacks are totally unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately,” a spokesman for the Western defense organization said.
The United States and the European Union (EU) also joined the chorus of condemnation of the attacks in northern Kosovo, through the voice of the US ambassador in Pristina, Jeffery Hovenier, and the head of the EU delegation in the country, Tomas Szunyog.
“The United States strongly condemns the actions of the protesters in Zvecan today, including the use of explosives, against KFOR troops who want to keep the peace. We reiterate our call for an end to violence and actions that escalate tensions and promote conflict,” Hovenier wrote on Twitter.
Szunyog also urged the “immediate cessation of violence and reduction of tensions”.
The Serbs of northern Kosovo do not recognize the authorities of the new mayors, elected in April in a vote in which the participation was barely 3%, due to the boycott of the Serb population, which is a minority in the country, but constitutes a large majority in four municipalities in northern Kosovo.
The elections were called after representatives of the Kosovo Serbs left Kosovo’s institutions last November to protest the discrimination they say they are subjected to by the central government.
Pristina rejected the US ambassador’s proposal that, in order to reduce tensions, the new mayors perform their functions in other facilities.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province populated mostly by Albanians, proclaimed its independence in 2008, which Serbia does not recognize. The two countries negotiate the normalization of their relations on the basis of a new EU plan, backed by Washington, in a process often interrupted by fighting.
Source: Observadora
